Katie Hewitt

My role as Behavioural Neuroscience Facility manager is fairly varied. On a day to day basis I provide advice and support to postgraduates, postdocs and academic staff on a wide range of laboratory and health and safety related matters. The position involves general management of the multi–user facility and administrative duties akin the role. These include finance, booking of rooms and equipment and liaising closely with the Department and Area Health and Safety Officers to maintain a safe and efficient facility for users, managing CoSHH, risk assessments and operating procedure documentation. Furthermore, I provide a point of contact and liaise closely with all administrative, operational and technical personnel within the BMS department.  I play a major role in the safety training of members of the Facility from EP and collaborative departments and manage tailored laboratory inductions. I sit on various committees including Health and Safety (for both EP and BMS) and coordinate the BNU management committee and meetings. I liaise closely with the administrative and finance offices in Experimental Psychology to ensure facility's use is charged correctly intra departmentally and to our collaborative colleagues and departments, namely Pharmacology, Psychiatry and Anatomy, Physiology and Genetics. I am able to offer scientific/research advice and expertise/practical training where appropriate. In June 2013 I coordinated the facility’s official opening event with an exciting programme of talks and posters.

Background

My research background is predominantly in the area of behavioural psychopharmacology. I read Neuroscience as my first degree (University of Wales, Cardiff), spending a year in industry and then obtained my DPhil in the serotonergic control of ingestive behaviour (Experimental Psychology, University of Sussex). My Postdoctoral research at the University of Nottingham focused predominantly on a model of ADHD, using numerous behavioural psychopharmacological paradigms, and phMRI.  I became a Senior Experimental Officer in 2004 for the Institute of Neuroscience (University of Nottingham), managing a state of the art multi-user behavioural facility. I conducted a varied research programme under the Psychopharmacology theme and teaching on the Neuroscience and Medical degree courses. Before joining the University of Oxford in 2011, I was appointed Education Development and Delivery Coordinator for the BAP followed by a lectureship in Biological Psychology at the University of Derby.